Ending Struggles
by pyro-2389
Summary: One day a mysterious American girl shows up at the Leaky Cauldron. Who is she? Why is she so powerful? and why is she so important to Voldemort? This is a HarryOC fic


Oh Lord! It was soup _again_! I threw the spoon down angrily  
into my thin paper bowl. The soup spilled over and splashed onto the  
dirty tabletop.

"If you ain't gonna eat it then at least give it to us who are!"  
Someone yelled at me from down the long table.

"Shut up!" I yelled back at them, damn cocky bastard's, think they  
own the whole place.

Only two more years and then I could leave. By law, when you turn eighteen you are considered an adult and you can leave the orphanage  
forever! I smiled thinking of when the time would come. Sometimes kids  
that were sixteen or seventeen ran away from here and lived on the  
streets. But I look at the bums sleeping in alleyways and benches in  
the park and that is _definitely _not an option for me. I'd  
rather sleep on a thin creaky bed with dingy sheets than a dirty  
sidewalk. Thank you very much.

So here I am. Sixteen. Living in an orphanage. It had been five years  
since those two men came to talk to me about some school, what was it  
called again? No matter, anyway, they told me that I was a witch (Yah,  
I know, weird huh?) And that I could go to the school and "Nurture and  
grow the power that is within me". Didn't they realize I was  
penniless, parentless and (according to me) not a witch? Obviously not  
because when they found out that I had **no** money what-so-ever  
they hightailed out of here pretty quick.

So here I sit five years later at this dirty soup covered table. I  
was pulled out of my past reverie by a tug on my thin shirt. I looked  
down into the big blue eyes of Chrissy.

"Shawlee, will you wead me a book?" she clutched the little stuffed  
bear closer to her chest. I smiled down at her and bent down and  
picked her up from the floor.

"Of course I will! I always have time to read a book to my little  
Chrissy" I said as I walked down the drab hall to the 'Rec. Room'.  
Plopping down onto the old sofa I picked a book from off the shelf. I  
put my arm around her as I read her 'My Pet Goat'.

Chrissy was only five years old and her body was already  
deteriorating from AIDS. Her small thin frame was leaning against mine  
as my body's warmth seeped onto her. I always seemed to be warm all  
the time, even during the coldest of nights. She was asleep before I  
even finished the book. I sat on the sofa with little Chrissy snuggled  
up against my side. I leaned over to the shelf and grabbed the first  
book I could reach. Settling back against the sofa, I flipped the book  
open to the middle and read:

_--Constance shoved Tony away, "No Tony, we mustn't! Not here, not  
now. Our Father's are at war with each other and if they knew of our  
secret love then not only would they tear us apart but they would  
force you to marry Louise and me to marry Charles."_

_  
But Constance looked back into the deep green pools that were Tony's  
eyes and felt herself becoming weak. She ran into his arms and  
clutched his chest tightly. Tony only smoothed her soft blonde hair  
and whispered into her ear. "Darling Constance, we mustn't let our_  
_Father's come between what we have. You and I together, we have  
something that no one else has! A love that was pre-destined, a love  
that is deeper than any ocean or purer than any red rose." He lifted  
her chin up to his face and lightly kissed her swollen lips. Tony felt  
himself losing control again, he reached behind her and pushed her  
firmly against his hard body. Constance looked back up into his eyes  
and brought her hands up to his jet black hair and ran her fingers  
threw the soft tendrils._

_  
"Oh darling Tony, I love you so much!" she slammed her mouth onto his  
and hungrily kissed him as if it were the last kiss they would ever  
share._

_  
Tony could feel the warmth in his groin burning hotter and hotter. He  
held his hands at Constance's waist and slowly let his hands glide  
down to squeeze her arse.  
_

_Constance felt Tony's hands move down her body until they firmly  
grasped her bottom, she moaned deeply into his mouth.  
_

_Her moan was his undoing, Tony lifted Constance from the ground and  
gently placed her onto the cool green grass. Fumbles and caresses and  
bites and sucking, they were suddenly both aware that they were both  
naked lying together on the grass. Constance once against lifted her  
big blue eyes to Tony's deep green ones and she felt him slip  
insi–'_

"Charlotte? What are you reading?". I was startled out of my uhh . .  
. "Light reading" and looked up to see my best friend standing above  
me.

"Daniel you scared me!" I whispered harshly to him as Chrissy was  
still sleeping at my side. He handed me a pillow from the end of the  
couch and I sat up and laid Chrissy's head on the pillow.

We walked to the big front window and stood staring out at the busy  
L.A. street.

"Let's get out of here Charlotte" Daniel said still looking out the window.

"Where do you want to go?" I asked.

"Away from here" he answered angrily, but then his face softened "We  
could pass for eighteen. We could go down to the train station and buy  
a ticket and go anywhere in the U.S. We could go to the wide-open  
fields of Texas or to Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Hell, I bet if we  
went to Canada we could get a passport and travel anywhere in the  
world" he turned to me and I stood there facing him "All we have to do  
is make that first step out of here Charlotte. That first step is all  
it takes to leave this crummy place." He grabbed my shoulders and  
asked almost pleadingly "Please Charlotte, come with me. I want you  
there with me. You're like family to me."

Daniel knew what it took for me to soften. Because whenever anybody  
says the "Family" word in reference to me, they are either talking  
about my lack-of or about foster care. So when someone says those  
lines of "_You're like family_" it turns my heart to butter and I  
can't help but feel at least somewhat loved. I looked up into Daniel's  
face. Daniel with his curly brown hair and his light green eyes. I  
knew he would make sure we were safe, I also knew that he would do  
whatever power he had in him to keep me out of harms way. But if we  
were both caught, they would not send us back here. Oh no, they would  
send us to the Juvenile Penitentiary. And that, my friends, is a place  
I would rather not be sent to.

"And what if we get caught?" I crossed my arms and looked at Daniel  
scrutinizingly "Then it's Juvy for us Dan. Do you really want to go  
there? Because I am really not wanting to book a first-class ticket  
there either." He shook my shoulders softly.

"Don't worry Charlotte, we _wont_ get caught".

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Daniel's plan was foolproof. We would leave during the afternoon and  
walk fifteen blocks to the train station. Since we didn't have any  
money we would have to umm . . . well, we would have to take it from  
people on the way. I want to say right now that I am against  
_any_ forms of stealing, even if it is to better our lives by  
getting out of Los Angeles. But if we didn't, we wouldn't have any  
money at all. Of course I didn't do any of the pickpocketing, it was  
all Daniel. Daniel had lived on the streets until he was fourteen, so  
he thought himself "Street smart". Well, had managed to get seven  
wallets with more than $200 in each. Consider ourselves lucky that we  
didn't get caught. I looked down at the money he had counted out for  
each of us. Grabbing it angrily I hissed.

"We are going straight to hell for this, ya know?" I looked at him  
angrily. Daniel tried to keep a straight face but then burst out  
laughing right in my face. He put his hand onto mine.

"I'm sorry Charlotte, but you just look so funny when you're mad.  
Your hair looks more poofy and your eyes go all squinty and oh . . .  
well, you just looked funny." He wiped a tear from his eye and he  
continued to chuckle.

"Are we going yet?" I whipped my hand out from under his. He lifted  
his hand and stared at his palm.

"Jeez Charlotte, your hands are warm. You made mine all sweaty" he  
wiped his palm on the side of his pants "It's so windy out here you  
should be freezing". He looked at me and then down at my hands.

It was true, I should have been cold. But in fact, I didn't feel cold  
at all. In fact I felt very nice. Like my body had its own little  
furnace working under my skin. I looked over at Daniel with his black  
hoodie on and then at my own body that was covered by a thin t-shirt  
and pair of over-washed-too-many-times jeans. Very odd, but I just  
shrugged my shoulders and looked back at Daniel.

"Let's go" I said.


End file.
